Vertically-pivoted wall-bed



w. 0. JAMES. VERTICALLY PWOTED WALL BED PLI CATIbN FILED OCT. I3, 1913- BENEWED FEB: 20, 19

1,353,162. faten tzdSept; 21,1920.

' 3 SHEETSSHEl- IT I Zdjfnasvam W. C. JAMES.

VERTTICALLY PIVOTED WALL BED RENEWED FEB. 20, 1920.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 131 19131" 4 PatentedSept. 21, 1920.

W. C. JAMES.

VERTICALLY PIVOTED WALL BED APPLICATION FILED OCT. 13, 1913'.

RENEWED FEB. 20, 1920.

4 3, 7 Wiiiar awmm@ a C. Jams in MQ'J was UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLARD 0. JAMES, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR T0 FRANK I. BELKNAP, OF'CHIGAGO, ILLINQIS.

VEBTICALLY-PIVOTED WALL-BED.

Application filed October 13, 1913, Serial No. 795,029.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLARD C. JAMES, a citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented a new and useful Vertically-Pivoted lVall-Bed, of which the following is a specification.

'1 his invention relates to that class of wall beds in which the bedstead is moved out of sight when not in use by swinging it through an opening into a closet or other storage space provided to receive it.

The salient objects of this-invention are to provide an improved bed of the class above mentioned which will not obstruct the doorway through which it is to be moved into and out of storage; to so pivot the bed that the doorway of the storage closet may be closed by a single door when the bed is either in the closet or out of it; to effect the foregoing without cutting to any appreciable extent or otherwise defacing the portions of the door, floor, door amb or other parts ordinarily exposed to view. My invention also contemplates an improved arrangement whereby the entire bedstead when stored will be contained along the wall in the space between the closet opening and one end of the closet so that when it is desired to enter the closet to place in or take therefrom objects such as clothing, easy ingress to and egress from the closet and ready access to said objects may be had. I

' further employ a novel arrangement wherein the carrier device is neither mounted in the opening nor adjacent to either side thereof, but is mounted entirely within the closet between the opening and the end wall of the closet, the pivot for said carrier device being adapted to travel toward and from the opening only within said space. also in this invention the arms may be used to operate a rack engaging pinion j ournaled on the traveling post to effect rectilinear travel of the post along the walls as the arms are turned, provision being made to allow the arms and pinion to be also operated idependently.

Attention is particularly directed to the fact that in this invention the entire bedstead can be moved into the storagespace that extends between the door opening and the end wall of the closet; Furthermore, it is to be noticed that this is accomplished by Specification 01 Letters Patent.

Renewed February 20, 1920. Serial No. 360,070.

employing an unjointed arm pivoted wholly within said space.

' The invention further resides in the novel arrangement and combination of parts and various features or" construction hereinafter set forth, and while I have shown a specific embodiment of my invention and described the same hereinafter in detail, it is obvious that various changes may be made without departing from the scope of my invention. The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention.

Figure 1 is a plan view embodying the invention, the building structure being shown in section. Solid lines and broken lines indicate alternative positions of the operating parts.

Fig. l is a diagrammatic plan view illustrating a slightly different arrangement of the building structure than shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged broken elevation mainly in section on irregular line indicated by 00 -09 Figs. 1', 3 and i.

Fig. 3 is a plan section on line indicated by Figs. 2 and 4. r

Fig. 4: is an enlarged broken sectional elevation on line indicated by 012*, Figs. 1, 2

by a closure of any well-known or desired construction as, for instance, a swinging door 6 which may be hung so that, when closed, it will be in alinement with the front wall 2 as usually constructed and as indicated in Fig. 1 or preferably be hung so as to extend normal to said wall as in Fig. 1 of the drawings. It is, of course, understood that the closure may be a portiere or a sliding door if desired, the same being well understood without illustration.

The storage space 1 may be used as an ordinary closet for holding clothing and the like, not shown, and is designed to store a bedstead 7 of any suitable design within the space extending from end to end of the rear face of the front wall 2 and, in other words, within the area 8 between the extended transverse plane of the doorqamb 9 and the end wall 4, and said bedstead detachably pivoted by pins at 10, 11 to a swinging and laterally shiftable carrier-device 12 adapted to swing the bedstead to and from said space and area The carrier-device 12, in the instance shown, is provided with upper and lower angularly bent arms comprising straight jamb-transversal limbs 13, straight jambparalleling limbs 14 bent at substantially right angles to the limbs 13, and straight diagonal limbs 15 bent at angles of substantially one hundred and thirtyfive degrees from the limbs 14, the construction of the carrier-arms being such that when the arms are swung outward to carry the bedstead to the unstored position outside of the closet the limbs 13 will extend along the transverse face 16 of the doorjamb 9 and the limbs 14 will extend substantially parallel to the front wall 2 and the limbs 15 will extend diagonally inward from said front wall toward the rear and end walls 3, 4.

The limbs 15 of the carrier arms are fastened by setscrews 17 or the like, to a pivo ing standard or post comprising an inner tubular member 18 and a sleeve 19 surrounding the inner member, said post being provided with and adapted to turn toothed members in the form of upper and lower pinions 20, 21 that are fastened by setscrews 22, or the like, to the post, and that mesh with upper and lower toothed members in the form of racks 23, 24 which extend parallel to and along the front wall 2 and which are suitably fastened by screws 25, or the like, to the front wall and floor respec tivel y of the building structure.

In Fig. 2 the setscrew 22 engages the inner post member 18 so that the sleeve 19 and pinion 21 may turn relative to one another, and in Fig. 5 the setscrew 22 engages the sleeve 19 so that said sleeve and pinion will turn together.

In the form shown in Figs 1 to 4. means are provided to cause the carrier-arms, sleeve 19 and pinions 20, 21 to turn together just as in Fig. 5 and said means may be thrown out of commission so that said carrier-arms and pinions 20, 21 can turn relative to one another, and in the instance shown, (see 2) the lower carrier arm is provided with a latch pin 26 having a shoul der 27 and adapted to be normally projected into a perforation 28 of the pinion 21 by a spring 29 seated at one end against the shoulder 27 and seated at the other end against a lug30 of the sleeve 19 through which lu the pin passes.

The latch pin 26 is operated by suitable means as a latch rod 31 connected to the latch pin and extending up preferably to within easy reach of the operator, said rod being shiftably held near its upper end by a lug 32 of the sleeve 19. v

It is now clear that in practical opera tion the bedstead 7 may be swung relative to the pinions 20, 21 and that by turning the carrier-arms the pinions and racks 23, 24 will cooperate to effect rectilinear travel of the post 18, 19 in a path which is substantially parallel to the front wall 2, and the pinions and racks are of sufficient size to effect a travel of a foot or more, so that when the bedstead is swung into the 'storage space the pinion will travel a suflicient distance toward the end wall 1 to withdraw the entire bedstead into the space within the mar ins of the front, rear and end walls 2, 3, i and, in other words, into the area 8 bounded on one side by the front wall 2. I

As hereinbefore indicated means are provided to detachably connect the bedstead 7 to the carrier device 12 and provision is made in such means to resiliently support the bedstead spaced apart from and out of engagement with the floor 5, and for this 90 purpose the pin 10 is mounted in a socket 33 which is located at the free end of the upper carrier-arm and which is provided with a coil spring 3 1 between the inner end of the pin and the bottom of the socket to normally project the pin upward, said spring being of sufhcient expansive power to normally support the weight of the bedstead and bedding, not shown, and said spring being com pressible by weight in excess of the weight of the bedstead and bedding, so that when the bed is occupied the casters 35 will be brought to rest on the floor.

It is clear that the bedstead 7 may be disengaged from the carrier device by withdrawing the pins 10, 11 or raising the head of the bedstead.

The carrier-device 12 is supported by suitable means and provision is also made for guiding the post 18, 19 in a path parallel to the racks 23, 24:, and for such purposes in the drawings the post extends substantially from top to bottom of the storage space 1 and is provided at its lower end with a fork 36 pivotally mounted by anti-friction bearing 37 and provided with a grooved roller 38 adapted to straddle .and travel along a track or way 39 which is arranged parallel to the rack 24 and is preferably integral therewith; and thepost is provided at its upper end with a vertically pivoted roller 40 adapted to travel in a way formed by a slot 41 in a bracket 42 that is arranged parallel to the rack 23 and is preferably integral therewith.

It is now clear that in practical operation when the bedstead 7 is swung to and from storage as hereinbefore described the rollers 38, 40, track 39 and bracket 12 will cooperate to maintain in perpendicular position the post 18, 19 and support and guide the same in an efficient manner.

It is clear from the foregoing that with this invention I accomplish an altogether novel and highly advantageous result and that this result is due in part to a particular combination of elements forming the carrier-device, and in part to the particular arrangement of elements of the building structure, and also in part to the particular combination of said carrier elements and building structure elements: and it is apparent from Fig. 1 that when the bedstead is in the unstored position indicated in solid lines, said bedstead is hung entirely out of the path of the Swinging door 6; that when the bedstead is in the stored position shown in dot-and-dash lines there is ample space between the bedstead and the doorjamb to admit of passage therethrough of a person desiring access to the storage chamber 1; that when the bedstead is swinging from one of said positions to the other position it will readily pass through a doorway of ordinary width; and that the bedstead can not only be retracted endwise within the area that lies betweenthe extended plane of the end of the front wall 2 and the end wall 4: but that, by throwing the latch pin 26 out of commission to release the carrier-arms, the bedstead may be retracted yet farther toward the end wall 4 to an extent that is only limited by said end wall and by the lengths of the racks 23, 24, track 39 and slot ll.

Particular attention is also directed to applicants unique combination of a pinion, a carrier-arm to turn the pinion, and a bedstead pivoted to the carrier-arm, which combination enables him to construct the racks 23, 2d entirely within the storage space 1, so that the same are unobtrusive and unobservable from the outside of the storage space when the door 6 is shut.

I claim:

1. In a wall-bed construction, a wall having sleeping space in front and storage space behind, upper and lower tracks rigidly mounted in the storage space parallel with and near to said wall, a post vertically between and adapted to be moved along the tracks and adapted to rotate, pinions fixed upon the ends of the post, gear racks rigidly mounted in position to be engaged by the pinions, and an up-endable bedstead connected to the post so as to swing around the edge of the wall into the sleeping space, and so that when the bedstead is swung into the storage space it may be moved laterally beyond the edge of the wall.

2. In a wall-bed construction, a wall having sleeping space in front and storage space behind, means forming a lower track rail and means forming an upper track slot both rigidly mounted in the storage space parallel with and near to said wall, a post vertically mounted upon a swiveled roller running on said track rail and having a roller running in said track slot so that the post may rotate, pinions fixed upon the ends of the post, gear racks rigidly mounted in position to be engaged by the pinions, and an up-endable bedstead connected to the post so as to swing around the edge of the wall into the sleeping space, and so that when the bedstead is swung into the storage space it may be moved laterally beyond the edge of the wall.

3. In a wall-bed construction, a wall having sleeping space in front and storage space behind, upper and lower tracks rigidly mounted in the storage space parallel with and near to said wall, a post vertically between and adapted to be moved along the tracks and adapted to rotate, pinions fixed upon the ends of the post, gear racks rigidly mounted in positionto be engaged by the pinions, a sleeve rotatably mounted upon the post, arms fixed to the sleeve, and an up-endable bedstead connected to the arms so as to swing around the edge of the wall into the sleeping space, and so that when the bedstead is swung into the storage space it may be moved laterally beyond the edge of the wall.

a. In awall-bed construction, a wall having sleeping space. in front and storage space behind, means forming a lower track rail and means forming an upper track slot both rigidly mounted in the storage space parallel with and near to said wall, a post vertically mounted upon a swiveled roller running on said track rail and having a roller running in said track slot so that the post may rotate, pinions fixed upon the ends of the post, gear racks rigidly mounted in positionto be engaged by the pinions, a sleeve rotatably mounted upon the post, arms fixed to the sleeve, and an up-endable bedstead connected to the arms so as to swing around the edge of the wall into the sleeping space, and so that when the bedstead is swung into the storage space it may be moved laterally beyond the edge of the wall.

5. In combination, a rack, a post having an inner member and a sleeve, surrounding the inner member, an arm fastened to the sleeve, a pinion fastened to the inner post member and designed to engage the rack, releasable means to lock the arm and pinion together, and a bedstead hung on said arm.

6. In a wall-bed construction, a wall having sleeping space in front and storage space behind, upper and lower tracks rigidly mounted in the storage space parallel with and near to said wall, a post vertically between and adapted to be moved along the tracks and adapted to rotate, pinions fixed upon the ends of the post, gear racks rigidly mounted in the storage space parallel with and near to said wall, a post vertically between and adapted to be moved along the tracks and adapted to rotate, pinions fixed upon the ends of the post, gear racks rigidly mounted in position to be engaged by the pinions, supporting means rotatably mounted upon the post, latching means for connecting the supporting means non-rotatably upon the post, so that the post may remain non-rotating during the sv-xinging of the bed or may rotate without swinging the bed when unlatched, and so that the post may be rotated by swinging the bed when latched,

and an up-endable bedstead connected to the supporting means so as to swing around the edge of the wall into the sleeping space, and so that when the bedstead is swung intothe storage space it may be moved laterally be yond the edge of the wall.

8. In a wall-bed construction, a wall having sleeping space in front anc storage spar e behind, means forming a lower track rail and means forming an upper track slot both rigidly mounted in the storage spa' e parallel with and near to said wall, a post vertically mounted upon a swiveled roller running on said track rail and having a roller running in said track slot so that the post may rotate, pinions fixed upon the ends of the post, gear racks rigidly mounted in position to be engaged by the pinions, supporting means rotatably mounted upon the post, and an upendable bedstead connected to the supporting means so as to swing around the edge of the wall into the sleeping space, and

so that when the bedstead is swung into the storage space it may be moved laterally be yond the edge of the wall.

- 9. In a wall-bed construction, a wall having sleeping space in front and storage space behind, means forming a lower track rail and means forming a lower track slot both rigidly mounted in the storage space parallel with and near to said wall, a post vertically mounted upon a swiveled roller running on said track rail and having a roller running in said track slot so that the post may rotate, pinions fixed upon the ends of the post, gear racks rigidly mounted in position to be engaged by the pinions, supporting means rotatably mounted upon the post, latching means for connecting the supporting means non-rotatably upon the post, so that the post may remain non-rotating during the swin ing of the bed or may r0- tate without swinging the bed when unlatched, and so that the post may be rotated by swinging the bed when latched, and an up-endable' bedstead connected to the supporting means so as to swing around the edge of the wall into the sleeping space, and so that when the bedstead is swung into the storage space it may be moved laterally beyond the edge of the wall.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Los Angeles, California, this 7th day of October, 1913.

, WILLARD C. JAMES In presence of- JAMES R. TOWNSEND, GEORGE H. HILES. 

